Drum (10) for manufacturing a tire blank, comprising a shaft, two flanges (14) movable in translation along the shaft, and means for supplying compressed air, each flange comprising at least one pneumatic effector (36). At least one flange comprises a first, radially internal ring (46) and a second, radially external ring (48) movable in rotation around the first ring by means of at least two airtight pivot connections (50), the rings and the pivot connections delimiting at least one sealed chamber (52), said flange comprising at least one first compressed-air circulation channel (54), a first section (56) of the first channel belonging to the first ring being connected at one of its ends to the sealed chamber, and a second section (58) of the first channel belonging to the second ring being connected at one of its ends to the sealed chamber.

The building drum includes a support (20), a central shaft (30) and an outer circumferential surface coaxial with the axis of rotation of the drum. The building drum also has a principal cylindrical surface (100) axially bounded by a shoulder (101) extended by a lateral protuberance (102) for receiving the products which have to be assembled. Several segments together define the principal cylindrical surface, and those segments are being divided into first and second groups of adjacent segments (103a, 103b) mounted so as to move between a first position in which they are circumferentially juxtaposed and a second position in which the adjacent segments are radially offset. Several adjacent elbow levers (140) form the shoulder (101) and the protuberance (102) in the expanded position of the drum and each elbow lever (140) is mounted with articulation on the segment (103a, 103b) and on the support (20).

An apparatus builds an uncured tire. The apparatus includes a cylindrical tire building drum for receiving a ply structure, an applicator for applying a first wedge strip and a second wedge strip to each of two shoulder portions of the ply structure, an extruder for dispensing a strip of material, and a cutting device for splitting the strip of material into the first wedge strip and the second wedge strip.

A space required for forming a cylindrical carcass band is reduced and productivity of carcass band forming is improved. A first forming drum (21) forms a cylindrical carcass ply (3). A second forming drum (22) forms a cylindrical member (7) by forming a cylindrical inner liner (4) and combining the inner liner (4) with the carcass ply (3). A third forming drum (23) forms a cylindrical side member (5) a carcass band (8) by forming a cylindrical side member (5) and combining the side member (5) with the cylindrical member (7). A conveying device (30) conveys the carcass ply (3) from the first forming drum (21) to the second forming drum (22) and conveys the cylindrical member (7) from the second forming drum (22) to the third forming drum (23). The third forming drum (23) is arranged below an arrangement space for the first forming drum (21) and the second forming drum (22).

Radially expandable building drum (1) intended for the manufacture of an adapter for mounting a tire on a rim, the drum comprising a central shaft (3), a first set (10) of segments (100) and a second set (20) of segments (200), all the segments being arranged circumferentially around the shaft (3) to form a generally cylindrically shaped external face (50) of the drum.

According to the invention, the segments (100) of the first set (10) and the segments (200) of the second set (20) face one another axially and the drum (1) is designed to allow different radial expansion of the segments of the first set (10) in relation to the segments of the second set (20) of segments between two working positions.

A drum (1) for manufacturing a pneumatic tire (2) is provided with a plurality of clamping jaws (12) mounted so as to be movable between a retracted configuration and a deployed configuration which allows the clamping jaws (12) to engage with a bead wire (3) of the tire (2), the clamping jaws (12) being placed, to this end, under the control of a deployment system (13) which comprises an articulated parallelogram (20) having a first, fixed base (25) secured to a shaft (11) and a second, mobile base (26) secured to a clamping jaw (12), and a drive mechanism (30) designed to cooperate with the articulated parallelogram (20) so that it is possible to select and modify the radial position (d26) of the mobile base (26) with respect to the fixed base (25) in order to pass from the retracted configuration to the deployed configuration and vice versa.

During building of tyres, at least one first forming drum is employed which has a deposition surface and includes sectors radially movable relative to a geometric rotation axis, and circumferentially distributed one after the other. A plurality of strip-like elements is deposited in circumferential side by side relationship on the deposition surface set in the first deposition configuration, to form at least one component of at least one first crown structure. Setting of the deposition surface includes the actions of radially moving the sectors to give the deposition surface a predetermined diameter and carry out a relative movement between a central portion and axially external end portions of each sector to shape the deposition surface according to a predetermined curvature outline.

During building of tires, at least one first forming drum is employed which has a deposition surface and includes sectors radially movable relative to a geometric rotation axis, and circumferentially distributed one after the other. A plurality of strip-like elements is deposited in circumferential side by side relationship on the deposition surface set in the first deposition configuration, to form at least one component of at least one first crown structure. Setting of the deposition surface includes the actions of radially moving the sectors to give the deposition surface a predetermined diameter and carry out a relative movement between a central portion and axially external end portions of each sector to shape the deposition surface according to a predetermined curvature outline.

A process and a drum for looping annular anchoring structures in a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels includes: depositing a loop on a drum including a radially expandable/contractible intermediate annular portion and, in a position axially adjacent to the opposite axial ends of said intermediate annular portion, a pair of radially expandable/contractible lateral annular portions; associating an annular anchoring structure with a radially outer annular surface portion of the loop defined at the intermediate annular portion; and turning up each of opposite end edges of the loop on the annular anchoring structure through the lateral annular portions as a result of a thrusting stress imparted by a respective lateral annular portion of said pair of lateral annular portions because of a synchronous radial movement and a synchronous axial displacement of a respective plurality of circumferentially adjacent first angular sectors.

The building drum includes a support (20), a central shaft (30) and an outer circumferential surface coaxial with the axis of rotation of the drum. The building drum also has a principal cylindrical surface (100) axially bounded by a shoulder (101) extended by a lateral protuberance (102) for receiving the products which have to be assembled. Several segments together define the principal cylindrical surface, and those segments are being divided into first and second groups of adjacent segments (103a, 103b) mounted so as to move between a first position in which they are circumferentially juxtaposed and a second position in which the adjacent segments are radially offset. Several adjacent elbow levers (140) form the shoulder (101) and the protuberance (102) in the expanded position of the drum and each elbow lever (140) is mounted with articulation on the segment (103a, 103b) and on the support (20).